Friday, September 14, 2018

Written by Jon Williams

On August 31, the entire eight-episode first season of Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan became available
for streaming. This new iteration brings the character to life for the first
time since 2014, and to the small screen for the first time ever. Positive
critical and viewer reactions are already rolling in, and the series has
already been renewed for a second season.

This time around Ryan is played by John
Krasinski, as the series focuses on the early days of the burgeoning CIA
agent’s career. Krasinski has been in the pop culture spotlight lately as the
star, director, and co-writer of the hit horror flick A
Quiet Place, which came out earlier this year. He is probably even
better known for his breakout role as Jim Halpert on The
Office, which he played for the entirety of the comedy series’
nine-season run. The rest of Jack Ryan’s
main cast is rounded out by Wendell
Pierce, Abbie
Cornish, Ali
Suliman, and Dina
Shihabi.

The show may be new, but the character of Jack Ryan is
anything but. He originally came to be in Tom Clancy’s 1984 The
Hunt for Red October. The novel tells how Jack Ryan, at this point a
young CIA analyst, helps to ensure the defection of a grizzled Soviet navy
captain with a devastating new submarine. The book became a bestseller
following huge critical reaction, including an endorsement from U.S. President
Ronald Reagan. Ryan has since featured in more than twenty novels, including such
titles as Clear
and Present Danger, Executive
Orders, Command
Authority, the recently released Line
of Sight, and the forthcoming Oath
of Office. Sadly, author Tom
Clancy passed away in 2013, but the mantle of writing the Ryan character
has been taken on by fellow authors Mark
Greaney, Mike
Maden, and Marc
Cameron.

And that’s where Jack Ryan’s screen presence left off, until
the new streaming series debuted two weeks ago. As more and more people
discover the show, Tom Clancy’s audiobooks and the past movies are sure to be
in demand. Use the links above to find the materials, or SmartBrowse ‘Jack Ryan’
on our website for a full list of audiobooks we carry in the series.